Paul Pierce tribute begins a day early

Saturday

Feb 10, 2018 at 8:59 PM

SCOTT SOUZAThe MetroWest Daily News

BOSTON — For the 15 years Paul Pierce wore a Celtics uniform it was about the battle each and every day.

He came to the practice facility and saw the championship banners. He came to the arena and saw the retired numbers. He dueled with the history of all the Celtic Hall of Famers who came before him. He wanted to challenge all the teams that raised banners without him.

He won so many of those bouts with greatness. Yet, he still kept picking fights with the next feat, the next boundary, the next level of franchise immortality.

On the eve of having his No. 34 raised to the rafters at TD Garden, Pierce was finally done waging the day-to-day wars with the ghosts of shamrock legends past. As he looked ahead to Sunday’s retirement ceremony, he could take pride in how heavily the career scorecard in those wars was slanted in his favor.

“It’s going to be emotional,” he said on Saturday night before a reception at the Four Seasons Hotel. “I know it is. People don’t understand. People see the finished product and what I was able to put out there on the court. But people don’t see the behind-the-scenes journey and the people who influenced that.”

Pierce said many of those people will be in the stands on Sunday as he is honored in the adopted city that became an unlikely home.

“I was able to embrace this city,” he said. “And (Boston) embraced me back. It was more than just basketball. It was the way I was able to get out in the community and inspire change. I think that’s what it’s all about.”

It was a process. Pierce came into town in 1998 with a giant chip on his shoulder from slipping to No. 10 in the draft and a brashness that helped thrust the team back to relevance following the tanking days of the mid-'90s.

“He was the type of player that Boston needed,” former teammate and current Celtics assistant coach Walter McCarty said. “A guy who could ignite a city and put a team on his back. He was fearless. He turned out to be the one.”

Pierce led the Celtics back into the Eastern Conference finals in 2002. As part of his ascension to stardom, NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal dubbed him “The (expletive) Truth.”

The Truth part stuck.

“He wasn’t scared of nobody,” former teammate Antoine Walker said. “He wanted to play against the best. He wanted to guard the best. He wanted to be the best. That’s one thing that’s got him to the point where he is today where they’re putting his number in the rafters.

“I am so happy for him because I know how hard he worked and how bad he wanted it.”

And for that, he sacrificed. A lot. For many, many years. But in a city, for a franchise, where the bar was set so high, he felt there was no other way that he would be able to clear it.

On June 17, 2008, he finally did in a transformative way when the Celtics crushed the Los Angeles Lakers, 131-92, in Game 6 of the NBA Finals to clinch the 17th banner in franchise history. Pierce was finally in the club. It didn’t mean he was going to stop fighting for a better seat. But it was part of the reason why he broke down in tears at the banner-raising ceremony on opening night the next season.

“You miss out on life just for one thing,” he said. “It’s incredible. For one thing. Just to be one of the best. You don’t realize it until right now when I look back on it. You did all this for one thing because you care so much. That’s just who I was. I cared so much. I wanted to be a winner, and wanted to raise a banner, and wanted to be a champion.”

The accolades as a player and person that will pour down on Pierce on Sunday began with a steady shower Saturday night. Walker called him one of the great clutch players of all time. Celtics legend Robert Parish called him the best offensive player in franchise history. Celtics assistant coach Jamie Young revealed that his own father died on the day of the Kevin Garnett deal in 2007, and Pierce that day begged Young to allow him to pay for the funeral, which he ultimately did.

It was all part of a story that unfolded over 15 thrilling, dramatic, sometimes difficult, always intriguing years for Pierce in Boston.

It was a story that earned itself a place in the rafters among the best ever told on the parquet.

“I don’t know if it was all worth it in the end,” he said. “But it sure feels like it was worth it.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.